M83 Unveils 'Knife + Heart' Soundtrack, Shares New Track

Once again, M83 is entering in the realm of soundtracks. Anthony Gonzalez has just announced Knife + Heart — his third feature score as M83 — and it's due out tomorrow (March 8).

The soundtrack is for the new French film by director Yann Gonzalez, and it hears Gonzalez reuniting with original M83 member Nicolas Fromageau, who left the group after their first two albums: 2001's M83 and 2003's Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts.

The digital version of Knife + Heart arrives via Mute on Friday, with the physical version to follow on April 26. This includes a 2-LP vinyl version.

For a taste of the soundtrack, you can hear its "Karl" below, as well as watch a trailer for the film. You can also read Exclaim!'s newly published review of the album here.

A press release describes the film Knife + Heart like this:

Knife + Heart is a noir-tinged erotic slasher that explores the seedy underbelly of Paris in the 1970s. Vanessa Paradis stars as Anne, the producer of third-rate gay pornography who strives to win back the affections of Lois — her editor and erstwhile lover — by shooting her most ambitious film yet. But events take a violent and dark turn when one after another, Anne's actors fall prey to a masked killer whose bloodlust knows no bounds.

As for the actual soundtrack, Yann Gonzalez said, "We wanted to recapture the Gialli ambiance of the '70s, to feel that sinister yet sentimental tone. Anthony and I are both poetical and even sentimental, in a certain way. We wanted to dive in headlong, particularly as melancholy and poetry are found in numerous '70s horror film soundtracks, from films by Lucio Fulci to those by Mario Bava. I'm thinking in particular of the harrowing soundtracks of Don't Torture a Duckling or Twitch of the Death Nerve."

He added, "This principle of pleasure came rushing back. I got Anthony to listen to some old soundtracks from straight and gay porn films. He quickly gathered the musical codes and finally, the most beautiful tracks in Knife + Heart — the most pleasurable ones — are probably the ones he recreated for the film's fake porn movies."

M83 previously provided the soundtrack for Yann's debut full-length feature, You and the Night. M83's last studio album was 2016's Junk.